Kingston Pen
Escapes from KP were few and far between. Two of the most famous escapes involved going over the wall with a ladder.
In 1923, the man who has been called Canada's most notorious criminal, bank robber Red Ryan, led four inmates over the wall after first setting fire to a shed as a distraction. Ryan went back to robbing banks, was captured three months later and ended up back in KP.
A model prisoner, he was released on parole in 1935, became a poster boy for prison reform, even hosting a radio program. However, in his leisure hours, Ryan had secretly returned to robbery until he was shot dead by a policeman during a botched liquor store holdup in 1936.
Bank robber Tyrone William Conn, who had already escaped from three other prisons, got over KP's 10-metre perimeter fence one night in 1999 by using a hand-made ladder and grappling hook he constructed in the prison shop. Thanks to a dummy he made by stuffing clothing with paper, his escape was not discovered until the morning.
Kingston Pen
Escapes from KP were few and far between. Two of the most famous escapes involved going over the wall with a ladder.
In 1923, the man who has been called Canada's most notorious criminal, bank robber Red Ryan, led four inmates over the wall after first setting fire to a shed as a distraction. Ryan went back to robbing banks, was captured three months later and ended up back in KP.
A model prisoner, he was released on parole in 1935, became a poster boy for prison reform, even hosting a radio program. However, in his leisure hours, Ryan had secretly returned to robbery until he was shot dead by a policeman during a botched liquor store holdup in 1936.
Bank robber Tyrone William Conn, who had already escaped from three other prisons, got over KP's 10-metre perimeter fence one night in 1999 by using a hand-made ladder and grappling hook he constructed in the prison shop. Thanks to a dummy he made by stuffing clothing with paper, his escape was not discovered until the morning.